The Laws of your Money with Ann-Margaret Episode 23

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The following is a paid podcast. iHeartRadio's hosting of this
podcast constitutes neither an endorsement of the products offered or
the ideas expressed. The following program is sponsored by New
York Priority Medical Care. Now it's time for the Laws
of Your Money, a weekly call in show with legal

(00:20):
tips to help you protect your money. Here's your host
and Margaret Caroza.

Speaker 2 (00:25):
Hello, and welcome to the Laws of your Money. This
is a program dedicated to protecting you and your families
from legal and financial mayhem when it comes to personal finance.
I believe that legal protections are the single most important element,

(00:50):
because what does it matter how diligently I save and
how brilliantly I invest if there's a greater than forty
per sent chance of losing assets to a long term
illness and expensive divorce taxes. This can be capital gains taxes,

(01:12):
estate taxes, not to mention ordinary lawsuits. We know we're
living in a very litigious society, but it comes as
a surprise to many people that we are more likely
to be in a court battle with a former loved
one than with a stranger. One of my first cases

(01:36):
out of law school involved two sisters fighting over a
vacuum cleaner that was left in the mother's estate. Welcome
to the program. I am and Margaret Carosa. I'm an
asset protection attorney based in Bayside, joined today again by

(01:59):
my esteemed colleague, the Reverend Paul Slackus.

Speaker 3 (02:03):
Welcome Paul, Hello Anne, Harriet. It must have been some vacuum.

Speaker 2 (02:07):
It was an Electroluxe vacuum. There it is, and they
spent many, many times the value of it in legal fees.
So yeah, I think.

Speaker 4 (02:20):
We all need legal guardrails to prevent misunderstandings and leading
to litigation.

Speaker 2 (02:34):
You know, most of the threats to our money, Paul,
that we talk about on this program every week are
external threats, right. It involves a devastating breakup or taxes
or being sued. But there are also inner demons. And

(02:56):
that's the subtitle of my book, Love and Money, Protecting
yourself from angry ex's, wacky relatives, con artists, and inner demons.
We have the capacity to repel wealth, right, and I
have shared with you, Paul and on the program that

(03:21):
at one point in time I was an out of
control financial train wreck, you know, with the credit card
bills up to my eyeballs. I did have much nicer
clothes at that point in time. But you know, I
talk to my clients about naturally their spending and savings habits,

(03:47):
but also their future beneficiaries saving habits. When we make
a determination, if I want my estate to go to
Mary Susie and Johnny, it's very important to determine whether
Mary Susie and Johnny are capable of handling a windfall

(04:12):
or do they need a little special guidance. And we're
talking right now. We are in the midst of the
Great Wealth Transfer, where the baby boomers estates are starting
to leave assets to their millennial and gen Z heirs.

(04:36):
Forbes estimates that one hundred trillion dollars is going to
change generational hands over the course of the next fifteen
to twenty years. So I think all of these issues
that we talk about are going to be more and

(04:58):
more important. There was a article in this week's post
talking specifically about gen Z beneficiaries of people's estates and
gen Z. We spoke a little bit about their work
habits on last week show. But studies indicate that gen

(05:21):
Z spends money like drunken salors. Really yes, and they
are expected to receive thirty six trillion dollars over the
course of the next ten years. So there is someone
whose Instagram I came upon, who is lovely enough to

(05:46):
join our discussion today. And before we go to our
special guest, I want to encourage folks to join the
conversation if you have a fight financial train wreck in
your life and you're wondering how to deal with them

(06:06):
within your estate plan, and even before dealing with the
estate plan, how do you deal with someone who needs
yet more money from you? So joining the conversation today
is someone who is giving tremendous financial guidance. Primarily I

(06:30):
think her followers are gen Z and maybe younger millennials,
and she's out there giving wonderful, super practical tips on
how to save money, how to live a great life.
And I'm hoping that more and more gen Z people

(06:51):
start to follow her. So I'm thrilled that she accepted
our invitation to be on the program, and I want
to welcome Roshni Verma to the conversation.

Speaker 5 (07:04):
Hi, Hi, thank you, and Margaret.

Speaker 2 (07:06):
I'm very kind.

Speaker 5 (07:07):
It's really great to be here.

Speaker 2 (07:08):
Thank you so much. So I want to jump right
in with you. And I know you are a reporter professionally, right,
You're not dealing with your your financial sideline as a business.
Is that accurate?

Speaker 5 (07:24):
Right? Yeah? So, ultimately my goal with this content online
is to bridge the gap between the traditional business reporting
I've done in my career, which is my background, and
with kind of real relatable money tips and hacks that's more,
that makes more sense and it's more approachable for my
gen Z millennial followers.

Speaker 2 (07:46):
No, I mean really amazing. Now, how did you become
interested in personal finance?

Speaker 3 (07:55):
Yeah?

Speaker 5 (07:55):
I mean it's a good question because I think at
the end of the day, it just all starts with
your mindset and your personal relationship with money, and personally,
I grew up in a pretty typical middle class family,
so I had to really teach myself how money works
and how to stretch a dollar from a pretty young age.

(08:15):
And what really shifted my mindset to have this interest
in this field was ultimately realizing that money isn't just
about math and budgeting and the kind of adult stuff,
but it's also emotional and it's the means of bridging
the gap of where you are and the life that
you envision yourself. And so once I started approaching finances

(08:37):
kind of a relationship and one that I could kind
of nurture, give sunlight, you know, give water to as
you do with everything else. Then it kind of started
to click.

Speaker 2 (08:47):
Do you see like any of your peers, any members
of your friend group extended friend group, who are out
of control financially?

Speaker 5 (09:01):
Definitely? Definitely. I think I do feel this kind of
sense of duty to speak up if I do see it,
but mostly just kind of as a friend and not
just as that friend that posts financial tips online. But
I think the key here is that when I see that,
I never lead with judgment, because most of the time,

(09:22):
if you see it's kind of overspending, it's typically a
trauma response. Then it comes from stress or insecurity or
whatever is happening in their life, and not just from
being reckless with their money. So in those cases, I
think it's important to offer some kind of tangible advice
to people, you know, budgets of information that they can
use to change their habits and make small changes that

(09:45):
make a big difference. Is make a big difference in
their finances over time. For example, if someone's impulse shopping,
you know, I'll ask them about the thirty where I'll
be like, are you going to wear this thirty times?
Is it worth buying it? Does it have value beyond
just this moment that you're gonna wear it once?

Speaker 2 (10:02):
No, those are really really good points. And I think
you know, Paul, do you see this in your friend
group or your friends all have their head screwed on
straight like you do?

Speaker 3 (10:15):
Well, I'm older, so but we're most of my friends
are are pretty secure and stable.

Speaker 2 (10:25):
And oh you're all rich.

Speaker 3 (10:27):
No, we're not all rich, but we're we've we've we've
been savers.

Speaker 2 (10:33):
Listen. I think you know, I don't envy the younger
millennials and Gen Z folks because they are under tremendous
uh financial burdens coming right out of the gate in
terms of student loans. And and I think that Roshni
is correct that these spending decisions sometimes comes from stress.

(10:59):
And I know in my peer group, you know, women
talk about retail therapy, and you know, it sounds kind
of funny, but it's really sad that people's response to
dealing with stress is to go out and you know,
further put themselves in the hole. So, Roshnie, do you

(11:24):
have are you able to honestly counter a friend's suggestion
that you go out and you go shopping and spend
a lot of money, or go to a restaurant that
is obscenely expensive. Are you comfortable saying that's, you know,

(11:46):
not a good choice for me.

Speaker 5 (11:50):
I think that's a good question. I definitely do feel
this kind of duty to say something. But I think
you're right. I think if you just start teaching people things,
it might not resonate in the same way. So I
think the key is to always kind of make it relatable,
show them the opportunity cost of what that really expensive
dinner might mean. It might mean that you might not

(12:11):
get your morning coffees for an entire week, And if
that morning coffee is really important to you, is it
worth what you're uh, you know, what you're spending this
big sum on. So I think just different ways to
frame it and make it relatable to people where it
feels real is definitely the key. But I do think,

(12:33):
you know, as a good friend, there's ways to bring
up these topics, and the more we take away the
stigma about talking about money, the more opportunities there are
to grow and learn from each other. So I definitely
think if you see a friend who's making an impulsive
spending decision that you know is not going to impact

(12:54):
them nicely in the long run. It's it's always worth
it to speak up. The cost nothing to speak up,
so it never hurts.

Speaker 2 (13:01):
That's a really good point. And the other thing is
you are at an age where your friends, if they
haven't started getting married already, they will be. And the
cost of the average wedding in the United States is
over twenty five thousand dollars. And do you know what

(13:25):
the cost of being a bride'smaid is? It's over one
thousand dollars. So when someone asks you do you want
to be in my wedding party? You know, do you
feel it's appropriate rotionie to ask the bride to be
You know what does that look like financially? Is the

(13:46):
bachelorette party going to be in the Bahamas? And you
know what am I expected to lay out financially? Oh?

Speaker 5 (13:57):
Absolutely, absolutely. I think transparency is key And you're so right.
You're seeing this across the board. Weddings are getting more expensive,
concert tickets, experiences, travel because people are really kind of
chasing these these life's experiences, especially as life is getting

(14:19):
more expensive. There's this kind of response to be like, Okay, well,
if everything's expensive, let me at least enjoy these moments.
And there's truth to that, but there's also you know,
there's sound financial advice here where you just have to
be transparent and understand if the cost of going to
this wedding is going to harm you long term in

(14:39):
your financial future, if it's going to impact your ability
to buy a home, invest in your business, or you know,
simply just take care of your expenses, then it's going
to be a decision that you're going to have to
weigh in the pros and cons for. And I think
as you see, as it becomes more normalized to have
these conversations, it will get easier. But I definitely think

(15:04):
the key here is just transparency. And that's on the
duty on both sides, you know, as the friends who's
been asked to be in the wedding, but also it's
the bride. You know, if you care about your friends,
you need to understand how your decisions might be impost.

Speaker 2 (15:19):
You are the really good We all recently got married
right a couple of months ago, and you had very
clever ways to keep your costs down.

Speaker 3 (15:34):
I did. We did, and because the Rabbis are friend
a house and catered ourselves.

Speaker 2 (15:47):
Well, I think it comes down to, you know, paying
for experiences, as Roshnie said, and you know, is acting
rich preventing you from becoming rich? Right?

Speaker 3 (16:04):
Oh? Yeah?

Speaker 2 (16:04):
Wouldn't it be better to do a lovely party in
someone's backyard and have little tea, sandwiches and champagne for
your wedding and then put the money toward it down
payment and really start to build your wealth.

Speaker 3 (16:25):
That's like old school though. That's that's how we were
brought up. Our age were brought up to save some
money so you can buy a house, so you can
make a larger investment in your life.

Speaker 2 (16:35):
Absolutely, Now, Roshni, you are the voice of reason, But
I have to ask you, were you ever a little
bit out of control financially or you're just you know,
always doing the right thing?

Speaker 5 (16:52):
Definitely not. I'm human at the end of the day.
But I think at the end of the day, you know,
being financially responsible doesn't necessarily have to equate to being
rich because being rich is different to everyone. For some
people that might mean owning lots of property or even
just a house, and for other people it might be

(17:12):
getting to go on multiple trips per year. So it's
just about being intentional. And I think that the key
here is that it's different for everyone. For me personally,
I really value experiences, kind of in line with what
we discussed before, and so for me, I'm definitely willing
to spend more than the average person on my travels

(17:35):
on concert tickets versus some other things. So for me,
it's just about living in your means and being intentional
with what you're prioritizing. And that's different for everyone. So
I know what I prioritize. You know, I talked about
morning coffees. I drink, you know, a seven dollars matra
every day in New York City, And I know that

(17:58):
doesn't make sense to a lot of people. But it's
just about intentional and what you prioritize and making sure
at the end of the day that you're still kind
of living in this spending deficit, whatever that means for you.

Speaker 2 (18:09):
So are you available to do an intervention for my
two gen Z children who are addicted to ubers and
door dash it's out of control?

Speaker 5 (18:23):
So no, that's that's a good point because those are
two expenses that are that are hard to justify because
there are really comparable alternatives to needing. Theo's public transportation
and you can go buy your food and like walk
to get it or make it at home. So it's
tough when they're like pretty sound alternatives. So maybe maybe

(18:46):
an intervention is not the worst thing there. But that's
a kind.

Speaker 2 (18:49):
One last question for you, Roshnie. Do you see younger
millennials and gen z getting wills and doing prenups before
they get married. Is there a sense of protecting themselves legally.

Speaker 5 (19:10):
That's the great question. I think increasingly, yes, that millennials
and gen z are thinking more about wills and prenups
than ever before, especially post pandemic, but definitely in a
different way than prior generations. You know, for example, now
we're seeing instead of a heavy focus on maybe a
state planning, they're also taking into account there their digital assets,

(19:34):
like their social media, their crypto, maybe protecting partners where
they're not married, philanthropy, all these kinds of New age factors.
So I definitely think it's interesting to see how this
concept of planning for the future starting to evolve, and
I think we'll see it a lot more and to

(19:54):
your second point in terms of prenups, Definitely, I think
there's for sure more clarity in the space that a
prenup isn't about planning for divorce. It's just about planning
for clarity. And the same way you buy insurance to
protect yourself and your loved ones in case you get
into an accident, aren't sick. It's the same concept, and

(20:16):
I think with more than half of marriages ending in divorce,
there's definitely a big stress that.

Speaker 2 (20:22):
I hope you are terrific and I want to thank
you for joining the conversation and sharing your wisdom with
our listeners. How can people follow you?

Speaker 5 (20:36):
Thank Yeah, thank you so much for having me. You
can follow me at Roshi Burma that money girl on
social I try to make money makes sense and more
approachable so that we can do this together.

Speaker 2 (20:47):
Thanks so much for being with us. I hope you
come back.

Speaker 5 (20:51):
Thank you so much for having me.

Speaker 2 (20:53):
Take care. Wow, she is definitely more on top of
her finances.

Speaker 3 (21:01):
I would say she's one hundred and forty six.

Speaker 2 (21:03):
Yeah, when experience Paul, when I was in my twenties,
just I was a train wreck. Now but only in
that one area of my life, So I was a
practicing attorney. I was actually, as you know, elected to
the state legislature in my twenties, right, but I would

(21:27):
be up in Albany, New York, State's capital, and checking
out of my hotel. We'd have to be up there
for three nights, crossing my fingers, wondering is my credit
card going to go through? Yeah, so Roshni has it,
has it going on. The Thing that I hope gen

(21:50):
Z people will think about doing is at the very
least advance directives. You know, once someone is eighteen years old,
their parents can no longer make medical treatment decisions for them.
So if you have a loved one who is over eighteen,

(22:14):
and maybe as a graduation gift, you give them a
healthcare proxy. On my website, you can download these documents
for free. And the website is my Asset Protection Attorney
dot com. And the other point I want to pick
up on that Roshni brought up social media. I think,

(22:40):
you know, when we're doing a state planning, we definitely
want to give our executor, give our trustee all of
our social media log in credentials. You know, I find
it very, very disconcerting to get these Facebook alerts for

(23:02):
someone's birthday, and I know they died four years ago
and the family is unable to access their accounts to
pull them down. So that's super important.

Speaker 3 (23:15):
Yeah, I agree, I agree. You know, talking about some
of the things in your book, there was a question
from someone you say that life insurance should be owned
by a trust or I want to also myself in
a will. Should you have life insurance? My life insurance
already has a beneficiary. Won't this avoid probate?

Speaker 2 (23:36):
So we want to have beneficiaries on all of our
financial instruments. But simply having a beneficiary is not going
to protect the value of that asset from taxes or
long term care issues. Right. So if I have let's

(24:01):
say a revocable trust, I have my home in a
revocable trust that will avoid probate for the kids. But
if I have the bad luck to become ill and
require nursing home care beyond the one hundred days that
Medicare and the supplement cover, the nursing home is going

(24:23):
to end up with my home. So we want to
really customize these legal structures, and we want to think
in terms with asset protection of having a stronger type
of trust than a living revocable trust. We also want

(24:45):
to think of a stronger trust if we're looking to
guard against estate taxes. We still don't know what Congress
is going to do this year, whether the temporary thirteen
point nine to nine million estate tax exemption is going
to be continued or whether it will in fact expire

(25:09):
at the end of this year. So we want to
be in a position to safeguard assets so that they're
not subject to estate taxes. You know, letting your heirs
pay estate taxes that you could have protected them from.
That is that's so smart. It's not smart. It's not considerate.

(25:33):
It's like, you know, sending a gift where they have
to pay for part of it, right, like sending something
cod if anyone remembers cash on delivery. So with the
life insurance, yes, we want to have a beneficiary. We
never want it to go through the will, and we

(25:55):
want to think about having it owned by a life
insurance trust so that the death benefit is not subject
to estate taxes. Because life insurance we hear that it's
tax free, it's only income tax free. It's not free

(26:17):
from estate taxes without doing some special planning.

Speaker 3 (26:23):
Let me ask another question that's been brought up to me.
How how often are so somebody gets married, say in
their twenties or so on and so forth, should they
get involved with the trust right then and there?

Speaker 2 (26:35):
Well, you know, at what age should you do a trust?
That depends on the person. So I have folks in
their twenties who come in to do a trust, if
they are in a high lawsuit driven profession, if we

(26:56):
have a physician, a contry tract or attorneys. You want
to think about it. As you're starting to generate some assets,
you want to think about having them owned by a trust.
Investment real estate, you want to think about an LLC

(27:17):
and LLP and S corporation. So I guess the answer
is as soon as you start to acquire some assets,
and how about with marriage?

Speaker 3 (27:28):
You know, so you get married and you're both successful
of and to yourselves, is that a good time to
start to think about trusts and so on, insurances and everything.

Speaker 2 (27:41):
Absolutely, you know, we want to with insurance, look at
the household and ask the question, what would happen to
my partner? What would happen to my children if I
die and there's a mortgage on the home and they're
unable to afford to continue to live there. So definitely

(28:03):
we want to think about these legal protections sooner rather
than later. And then you know, the flip side to
that is you have these structures in place, when do
you update them. You want to update them when a
relationship changes. Let's say we're married, but I've mentally made

(28:27):
the decision that the marriage is not going to last.
Maybe we're in that holding pattern waiting for a child
to graduate. Now while we're still technically married, I may
want to update my advanced directives so my soon to
be expouse is not the one making life and death

(28:49):
decisions for me in a hospital setting. Or maybe we're
super happy but he's developed or she's developed a long
term care is or a dementia related illness. Now they
should no longer be the agent h.

Speaker 3 (29:07):
And so you can do that legally. You're able to
knowing that, yes, things happening.

Speaker 2 (29:13):
You need to examine these structures periodically and make sure
that you draft with flexibility so you can revisit when
life changes. Reach out to me during the week through
my Asset Protection Attorney dot com and join us next
week on wor seven ten at ten thirty am. Have

(29:38):
a great Day Everyone.

Speaker 1 (29:50):
The preceding program was sponsored by New York Priority Medical Care.
The proceeding was a paid podcast. iHeartRadio's hosting of this
podcast constitutes neither in endorsement of the products offered or
the ideas expressed